


The Opposite

by Zombiehumans



Category: 13 Reasons Why (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Lack of coping mechanisms, Past Abuse, and neglect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-26 11:26:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14999921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zombiehumans/pseuds/Zombiehumans
Summary: Justin is having a bad day and has a confrontation with the Jensens.





	1. Chapter 1

Justin was in a bad mood. He was trying hard to avoid heroin and other drugs, and he'd been succeeding for a while, but that didn't exactly make it easy. He never really knew how to manage his emotions. Drugs and alcohol and sex all made them go away, but he wasn't good at actually working through anything. It's not like he ever had anyone to teach him how. His mom sure as hell didn't have a clue as to how to deal with her own shit. So when he didn't have access to one of those easy ways to push everything aside, he didn't feel awesome. Guilt, stress, sadness, worry, anger, fear... He would get stuck in a mood that he didn't know how to get out of.

In that kind of a state, unfortunately, it's not so easy to get along with other people. That would be fine if he could hide out and avoid them, but considering the Jensens did at this point know that he was living in their house (more than knew, they actually wanted it, like permanently, somehow), that wasn't a thing. They were the kind of parents (parents!) that made a specific point to know what was up with you. Mrs. Jensen kept peeking into his bedroom (because yeah, they even fixed him up his own bedroom), asking if he needed anything, how he was doing, all that parental stuff. He kept saying no thanks and mumbling that he was fine, but every time she showed up he got a little more irritated because he seriously wasn't in a place where he wanted to communicate with anyone.

So when Mrs. Jensen came to the door and asked if Justin was ever going to get up and leave the room and join the world, he snapped at her. Her joking tone got on his nerves more than all that annoying concern.

"Would you just shut up and leave me the fuck alone!?" He jumped up and went to close the door. It didn't have a lock but he hoped she would get the message.

Apparently the answer to his question was no. She held the door open.

“No, I will not. You don't get to talk to me like that. I'll grant you plenty of leniency for the situation you're in, but if you're going to live in this house – ”

“I won't, if that's what you want!”

A confrontation was the the furthest thing from what Justin needed, but now that he was in one, his mess of negative emotions just flared up more. Guilt for screwing up the Jensens' lives, anger at Mrs. Jensen's interruptions, fear of ending up with nothing again. When he would fight with his mom or one of her boyfriends, his go-to was to get out. Whether he had anywhere to go or not, he would get out and deal with the rest later. What else was he supposed to do now?

“Just give me a goddamn minute to grab my things!” He reached in front of her to grab the doorknob and slammed the door shut while she jerked her hand out of the way.

He had a brief moment of quiet while he went for his bag, but then the door was open. He turned and saw not Mrs. Jensen, but Mr. Jensen. He came forward with a hand out, and Justin reacted instinctively. He swung at the man, but his fist was caught in Mr. Jensen's outstretched hand. Suddenly he panicked, backing away, aware of what he had almost done. He didn't even look at Mr. Jensen's face. He looked to his hand, which the man was now shaking out. It wasn't a successful punch but it seemed like he had caused some pain.

“Oh shit, shit shit, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, I wouldn't...”

He could feel his eyes growing wider as he shrunk in on himself, trying to be smaller. This was not a man he was supposed to fight with. A fight with him, Clay's dad, and he would never be able to come back.

But Mr. Jensen didn't come at him again. He put his hands up in a nonthreatening gesture.

“Hey, it's okay.” When Justin looked up at Mr. Jensen, it must have shown on his face that the statement didn't make sense to him.

“I mean, it's not okay, we're gonna have to talk about this, but it's not the end of the world. We don't need any more fighting. Just take a couple of deep breaths, alright?”

Justin took that advice. This was new. Someone stopping a fight, and not rolling their eyes and walking away like his mom would do but sticking around and wanting to talk about it? He kept breathing, because it did actually seem to help calm him down a little. It felt like a long time to just stand there focusing on breathing, but Mr. Jensen didn't act impatient. After a moment, Mr. Jensen spoke again.

“Do you think you could come downstairs and sit with us at the kitchen table in a few minutes?”

“Yeah, uh, okay.” Now that he could breathe a little easier, he didn't see a reason to say no.

Justin sat on his bed for a moment, trying not to go back into panic mode. After a few minutes of giving himself a little break and presumably giving the two of them time to talk, he headed downstairs and sat across from them at the table.

Mrs. Jensen began, “Now, we're done fighting, but we do feel there should be some sort of consequence for your behavior just now.”

Mr. Jensen nodded. “We're not okay with being shut out like that, especially not with foul language and violence. We've been through that with Clay, and we're done with it, okay?”

Justin looked down at his hands and nodded, ashamed at having reacted like he did. He shouldn't have shouted at Mrs. Jensen for being nice to him, and he definitely shouldn't have swung at Mr. Jensen. He looked back up to apologize, turning to Mrs. Jensen first.

“Mrs. Jensen, I'm really sorry for yelling at you. You didn't do anything wrong, you didn't deserve that.” Then he turned to Mr. Jensen. “And Mr. Jensen, I'm really sorry for hitting you. I swear I didn't mean to, I just saw you coming and you seemed angry and I went with what I knew, which was really stupid cause I know you aren't that kind of guy, but I wasn't thinking. If you don't want me here because of that – I can't say it'll never happen again, cause I didn't mean to and I still did it – I get it.”

He hated saying that part, but he knew he had to. Yeah, they'd been through some shit with Clay, he wasn't exactly stable either, but he highly doubted Clay had ever physically attacked one of his parents.

But the Jensens both seemed a little shocked by that, and both responded with, “No.”

Mr. Jensen continued, “Of course we don't want you to leave. We'll have to work on that response, because no kid should be scared enough to react like that. But we're going to adopt you. That's already been decided, hasn't it?”

Justin had to smile at that. His worst fear had so quickly been ruled out.

“Yeah, yeah, it has. Thank you.” He had never been more thankful for anything in his life than he was when Clay informed him that the family wanted to adopt him. That they would do that in the face of deception, drug use, juvie, and now a touch of violence, would never make much sense to him, but he loved it.

“What we do want to do,” Mrs. Jensen continued, “Is ground you for a few days.”

“Ground? As in, I can't leave the house?”

“Yes son, that's what grounding means,” replied Mr. Jensen, amused.

Justin laughed a little to himself, smiling at the absurdity of his situation. Both Jensens looked at him quizzically, so he explained.

“This is literally the opposite of every other kind of trouble I've had at home. Every fight with my mom or her boyfriends either ended in me being told to get out, or leaving on my own to get away to somewhere safer. Now you guys are telling me I can't leave. And I actually believe this is the safest place.” He shrugged. “It's kind of funny.”

That little tidbit of his usual life seemed to upset them, so he tried to lighten the mood.

“Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'm excited to be grounded or anything; it's a perfectly fine punishment. You don't have to add anything else!” He chuckled. “Promise!”

They smiled, but he noticed that they glanced at each other too, like they were going to talk about him later when he wasn't around. He didn't want to get into his issues any more if he didn't have to, so he asked if it was okay to go back up to his room, and they consented. As he made his way up the stairs, Mrs. Jensen shouted, “Three days!”

Three days grounding, instead of a black eye and a night of homelessness? He'd take it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A couple of nice people suggested I write some more so I did.

A few hours later, Justin was still hanging out in his bedroom, still not in the greatest mood, but feeling a little better after having what had paradoxically turned out to be a positive experience with the Jensens. He still felt guilty for being there at all, and for going off on the two of them. He still worried about how he would manage to avoid another relapse, or how he would deal with it if he couldn't do that. But at least he wasn't afraid that the Jensens would stop wanting him around. That helped with the guilt, at least a little bit. That they seemed to want him, even if he was the source of a lot of trouble. 

This time when Mrs. Jensen appeared at the door, Justin wasn't irritated by it. She came in cautiously, probably trying to make sure he didn't go off again. 

“Justin? I wanted to see how you were doing. If you don't want to talk, that's fine. But I want you to know that I would be happy to listen, if you do.” She looked at him kindly, with just a hint of a smile.

“Actually, yeah, that might be good.” Justin didn't know what exactly he had to say, but he thought he should give talking a shot. It had helped earlier, after all. 

Mrs. Jensen walked over and, silently asking permission first, sat beside him on the edge of his bed. “So you obviously weren't doing so well earlier, and I didn't handle it too successfully. What's been troubling you today?”

“I don't know. I just don't feel good. Like, mentally, I guess? I get stressed, and worried, and guilty, about everything. And, you know,” he looked away, “It doesn't help that one of those things I worry about and feel bad about is friggin heroin. I don't want to use it, but at the same time I do. I can't not think about it, I can't stop being on edge, I can't...” He trailed off, embarrassed to be talking about that. “Sorry,” he said, looking back up at her nervously. 

“Don't be sorry. I asked because I wanted to know. I always want to know, okay?”

Justin nodded. 

“Meetings help, and having a safe place and people to try not to disappoint, they help. It's just a lot.” He sighed.

“Do you think maybe a one-on-one counselor would help too? Someone else who can listen, and have better advice than me or my husband?”

“Maybe? I don't think I could right away, but yeah, I am pretty fucked up. It would probably be a good idea.” Justin knew he had problems, beyond Hannah and Jessica and drugs, even. He had a whole screwed up life to unpack, right from the screwed up beginning. 'Thanks, Mom,' he thought.

“Yes,” he confirmed, more certain. “I think that would help.”

“Good, that's good to hear. We'll get that set up when you're ready.” She smiled at him, pleased with his answer.

“And in the meantime, there's a little thing I do that I think maybe you might like to try too. It might not do you any good, but it might be worth a shot if you like the idea.”

He let her go on.

“I keep a kind of positivity journal. Where I make a point to write down something good about every day. Sometimes it's something little, like I ate something I liked. Or something big, like a success at work or a great day with my family. It feels good to focus on those things, even if other parts of the day weren't so good. And to look back on it later, and have a biased, positive version of things to remember.” She laughed lightly. “If you want to try it, I have spare journals. If not, no worries. Just because it's good for me doesn't mean it'll be good for someone else.”

“No, I mean yeah, that sounds okay. I could try that.” 

“Alright then. Let me fetch you one, and then I'll let you be.” She stepped out and returned a moment later with a journal. She handed it to him, he took it, and she headed back downstairs.  


He looked at it for a minute, but before he had time to hunt down a pen and give it a try, Clay showed up. The door was still open, but he tapped on it anyway. 

“Hey Justin. I'm heading back out in a few minutes to meet up with Alex and Zach. Do you wanna come?” Apparently Clay hadn't heard about Justin's most recent mishaps. 

“I can't. Guess why?” 

Clay wrinkled his eyebrows, caught off guard by Justin's cheerful tone.

“Why?”

“I'm grounded!” He gave Clay a goofy smile, eyes wide open. 

“And that makes you happy because?” Clay was definitely confused.

“I've never been grounded before!” He had to change the tone a little bit then, but he kept it fairly light. “You probably know I used to spend the night at other people's houses, right? The last time I left my mom's house it was a big one, obviously, but that's what used to happen pretty much every time I fought with her or her boyfriend.”

He noted Clay's face evening out, taking on a more serious expression.

“But today I fought with your parents – by the way, I fought with your parents, sorry – and I got in trouble, but they didn't make me leave. They told me I couldn't leave. Which is pretty cool, actually.” He grinned.

“Okay, I guess that makes sense.” Clay smiled back at him. He accepted the answer and took it in stride, and Justin appreciated that.

“I have to go, but I'm glad you're here, Justin. Just so you know.” He could tell Clay meant what he said. Clay might have lied about a lot of things, but he was always honest about how he felt about you (even when it wasn't good, as Justin knew from experience). 

“Thanks Clay. So am I.” He looked Clay right in the eye, expecting him to understand that Justin was happy not just to be in a safe place with nice parents, but to be there with Clay, who was a genuinely good guy.

Clay nodded with understanding and disappeared to his own room, then came out in a different set of clothes. 

“Well, enjoy your grounding, I guess,” he said with an amused smile. “I'll see you later.”

Once Clay was gone, Justin found himself a pen and wrote the date on the first page of his journal. He would have a bit of space to fill for that day.

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks for reading my second ever fanfic! I hope it was acceptable. 
> 
> (I don't know how to indent paragraphs, so apologies for the inexpert formatting.)


End file.
